Posts Tagged ‘Memphis’

Well we have arrived. Yes Ladies and Gentleman, the night of the NFL Draft is upon us. The tv ratings for this thing are completely ridiculous. Now I’m not hating, I am going to watch it. However, to think that that one draft pick suddenly makes your team a Super Bowl Contender in itself is pretty silly. Yet, we watch, pray and hope that Our Team makes Our Choice, and doesn’t do anything stupid like taking that nose tackle out of Central Missouri State Tech Institute of Geology.

So, why do so many people watch this thing? Upside. That is the name of the game right there. Hope could be another name for it. I hope that my St. Louis Rams will actually surround Bradford with a receiver that can actually run, catch the ball, and chew gum all at the same time tonight. Cleveland Browns fans hope that they will draft a team that will finally get them a winning record. However, it has been proven many times over that the likelihood that both of these franchises turn it around this year are extremely slim. It is proven that they don’t have a clue how to draft. If they did, they wouldn’t be terrible every year. Yet, as fans we sit there and hope for the upside.

Let’s take this a step further. Many times tonight, we will hear that a guy has great upside. For example Dontari Poe, the Defensive Tackle out of Memphis. He has been noted by experts as having great upside. Why? Because he can bench a lot, he is big, and he can run pretty fast for a tackle. He doesn’t have upside because he can actually tackle anyone, or dominated in college (he played in conference usa and couldn’t even dominate there). Yet, fans and experts alike salivate at his upside.

that is a big boy

Also tonight we will hear a lot of guys that are proven, but may have reached their ceiling. As fans, a lot of us think..eh, he is who he is (even if the guy is Kellen Moore who threw 142 td in college). I mean nevermind that he destroyed a top ten defense in Georgia, or led a game winning drive against Va Tech a couple of years ago. He is proven, yet because he is 6’0 and has done everything that he could do in college, he is not even being talked about. While Ryan Tannenhill, a QB from Texas A&M is being dissected like a frog in 4th grade. He may be a top ten pick tonight, based on nothing but upside. He is tall, and has a great arm and he beat errrr….um….no one in his college career. However, yeah he deserves that Top Ten Pick.

So why does this happen? Maybe because a lot of us in the world are always looking for the next best thing, or what we have isn’t good enough. We just bought a brand new car, but the neighbors bought a better one and we want that one. We just bought a house, but we always want one bigger and our basement isn’t finished. We have a great job, but always have ears open to hear about one that may be better.

I want this one

It’s kinda sad in a way, but I don’t think there is one person who hasn’t felt like they wanted something better at one point in their life, even though what they have is pretty great. That drive to always look toward the upside is sometimes a good thing (heck it is what this country was founded upon), but sometimes we just have to look in and see all of what we have proven already, and enjoy the journey and life we have already made.